Introduction: Russo-Ukrainian War and the Global Disruption

This chapter introduces the book The Russia and Ukraine Conflict: Implications for Sustainable Development Prospects in Africa. It does so by offering theoretical comments about the Russia-Ukraine war and its cause. This chapter briefly offers an historical overview of the Russo-Ukrainian relationship since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 to indicate the motivations for the conflict that eventually broke out on 24 February 2022 between the two countries. This chapter also touches on the concept of sustainable development. As this chapter indicates, the book sits at the intersection of two sets of scholarly literature, namely, literature on conflicts and literature on sustainable development. The war is currently unfolding, and the book contributes to highlighting some already unfolding implications and how countries could respond. This volume, thus, highlights the implications of the war through several case studies.